Two are better than one: comparison influences infants' visual recognition memory.
Despite a large literature on infants' memory for visually presented stimuli, the processes underlying visual memory are not well understood. Two studies with 4-month-olds (N=60) examined the effects of providing opportunities for comparison of items on infants' memory for those items. Experiment 1 revealed that 4-month-olds failed to show evidence of memory for an item presented during familiarization in a standard task (i.e., when only one item was presented during familiarization). In Experiment 2, infants showed robust memory for one of two different items presented during familiarization. Thus, infants' memory for the distinctive features of individual items was enhanced when they could compare items.
Oakes
Lisa M
LM
Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, 267 Cousteau P1, Davis, CA 95618, USA. lmoakes@ucdavis.edu
Kovack-Lesh
Kristine A
KA
Horst
Jessica S
JS
D002657:Child Development; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D021641:Recognition, Psychology